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The Fifteen Books of Aurelius Augustinus, Bishop of Hippo, on the Trinity

Chapter 1.--God is Above the Mind.

1. Desiring to exercise the reader in the things that are made, in order that he may know Him by whom they are made, we have now advanced so far as to His image, which is man, in that wherein he excels the other animals, i.e. in reason or intelligence, and whatever else can be said of the rational or intellectual soul that pertains to what is called the mind. ¹ For by this name some Latin writers, after their own peculiar mode of speech, distinguish that which excels in man, and is not in the beast, from the soul, ² which is in the beast as well. If, then, we seek anything that is above this nature, and seek truly, it is God,--namely, a nature not created, but creating. And whether this is the Trinity, it is now our business to demonstrate not only to believers, by authority of divine Scripture, but also to such as understand, by some kind of reason, if we can. And why I say, if we can, the thing itself will show better when we have begun to argue about it in our inquiry.

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De Trinitate

I.

[I 1] Volentes in rebus quae factae sunt ad cognoscendum eum a quo factae sunt exercere lectorem iam pervenimus ad eius imaginem quod est homo in eo quo ceteris animalibus antecellit, id est ratione vel intellegentia, et quidquid aliud de anima rationali vel intellectuali dici potest quod pertineat ad eam rem quae mens vocatur vel animus. Quo nomine nonnulli auctores linguae Latinae id quod excellit in homine et non est in pecore ab anima quae inest et pecori suo quodam loquendi more distinguunt. Supra hanc ergo naturam si quaerimus aliquid et verum quaerimus, deus est, natura scilicet non creata, sed creatrix. Quae utrum sit trinitas non solum credentibus divinae scripturae auctoritate, verum etiam intellegentibus aliqua si possumus ratione iam demonstrare debemus. Cur autem ‚si possumus‘ dixerim res ipsa cum quaeri disputando coeperit melius indicabit.